Stuff I've been reading

[jrbl]

I've been at CERN for the last ten or 11 days, and I brought a lot of stuff with me. The latest copy of Asimov's and my laptop and my cell phone (which isn't useful as a cell phone, but makes an OK pocket web browser), and my running kit and all kinds of stuff. It's really kind of ridiculous how much I have to entertain me. Mostly I've been

Comments

[jrbl]

Probably the best of these is the Abraham Lincoln one, though all of them have merit for different reasons.

[anami]

Thanks for sharing. <3

[jrbl]

Hm, I guess the thing that impressed me about the Lincoln piece was how I'd never actually given his life or his work very much thought. And so having these fascinating personal details laid out as, what I admit is, the buildup to a thesis (rather than a strong argument for it) was very interesting to me. Also, historical research is usually vague and shallow in a way that math and science nerds find distinctly unsatisfying. At best, we're building frameworks for sympathizing, and making best guesses.

Yeah, I actually read on my phone quite a bit. I keep the font size pretty big. I find that it's nice to always have reading material with me, and I always have the phone, so. I also find it helpful to be able to stay on-task by shunting anything I'm being distracted by to Instapaper. I do a lot of blog reading on the toilet, and standing in queues.

I haven't ruined my eyes yet. But they're pretty far gone to start with.